Twelve children ranging from teenagers to toddlers to infants are here, scrambling across the floor, bouncing on beds. With eyes filled with resignation, they are hungry and dirty and they wear the same clothes they wore the day before and the day before that.

Mom is asking for help, saying she is homeless and hopeless. A relative paid for the hotel room for a week, and after that, who knows. Her fiancé is in prison. Her 1-year-old is named John The Baptist Brown.

Angel Adams is indignant when asked about her situation, saying somebody owes her. The lifelong Tampa resident says she wants justice from the Hillsborough County sheriff's child protection team that took her kids away from her two years ago and from Hillsborough Kids Inc., which got her kids back six months ago.

"What do I do?" she says. "I have no answers. My family has been railroaded. Someone needs to pay.

"Nobody's helping me."

Inside the dingy motel, Adams hands out a list of her children and their ages. Across the top: "Three fathers. One Mother. Fifteen Children."

Food is donated. They get Cuban sandwiches and packaged noodles. There's a microwave and mini refrigerator. No stove. One sink, one toilet, one shower. Everyone's barefoot, walking on a dirty, stained green carpet.